Nigeria Content Online

The Conference of Nigeria Political
Parties (CNPP) has rejected the timetable of elections provided by the
National Assembly in the amended 2006 Electoral Act, saying it would
not allow for credible polls next year.

The group, in a statement by its
Secretary General, Willy Ezugwu in Abuja, said the harmonised version
of the amended Electoral Act adopted by the Senate and the House of
Representatives, means National Assembly elections will come up before
the presidential election as well as gubernatorial and state Houses of
Assembly elections.

The CNPP asked politicians in the
country to reject the arrangement, insisting that it is capable of
instituting one party system in the country.

“There is obvious danger in the domino
effect that will follow once the result of presidential election is
announced. The People Democratic Party has already shown those in the
opposition what it means not to be on the side of government,” the
statement said.

“Once a particular political party
(even if not the PDP) wins the Presidency, the most likely thing is for
people to immediately queue up behind that party because no one wants
to be in the opposition, especially since our federalism still runs
like a unitary government.”

The CNPP described as laughable the
reported denial by the federal lawmakers that they were not induced to
do President Goodluck Jonathan’s bidding while working on the electoral
laws.

It noted that since Mr. Jonathan is the
leader of the PDP, no member of the National Assembly elected on the
platform of the party could stand up to him during his meeting with
them on electoral matters.

“Who does not know that the President
is automatically the party leader in the PDP which presently controls
the National Assembly? How many of the lawmakers were bold enough to
challenge the President during their meeting with him and is it not
also a curious coincidence that the criminal change to the order of
elections came just after the meeting,” it said.

The group observed that the President
sounded convincing on his promise of credible elections by appointing a
radical Attahiru Jega to head INEC, but stressed “this has now shown
that the only improvement being made to the electoral process is the
seeming image of the professor.”

Doctrine of necessity

The body stated that the country is now being forced to hastily prepare for elections.

The CNPP asked the National Assembly to
invoke the doctrine of necessity to shift the elections to April next
year in order to sort out some issues inherent in the amended
constitution and Electoral Act.

“From the look of things, it is
important that the federal lawmakers must again invoke the doctrine of
necessity to shift the elections to April next year,” Mr Ezugwu said.

“This will allow enough time to sort
the mess they created through their un-coordinated amendment of the
constitution and electoral law.

“The National Assembly must also
quickly change the Electoral Act to revert to an order that will not
enslave other level of elections to the outcome of the presidential
election.

“The old trick of crippling INEC by
delaying funding is being applied by the present government again and
this should not be allowed.

“A situation where the electoral
commission has just days to secure N74 Billion for compiling the voter
register is a stark reminder that Mike Tyson, Desmond Tutu, Nelson
Mandela and the late Michael Jackson may yet be able to find their way
into the register and vote in several states of the federation.”

But spokesman of the House of
Representatives, Eseme Eyiboh, said the group is raising an unnecessary
alarm when it ought to engage in public enlightenment on the
forthcoming elections.

Mr. Eyiboh expressed surprise that the CNPP is raining the matter
even though the National Assembly gave it an opportunity to participate
in the public hearing preceding the amendment of the Electoral Act.

America is fighting a border war. With itself.

This week,
President Barack Obama and his attorneys won a major battle. A judge
overturned portions of a controversial new law in the southern state of
Arizona aimed at fighting illegal immigration.

“Arizonans are
already very angry at the federal government,” CNN Correspondent
Jessica Yellin said. “I suspect this will only turn up the heat on that
rage.” The law has set-off a national debate about the roughly 11
million foreigners who live in the U.S. without permission and what the
country’s 300 million lawful residents should do about them.

Arizona is the most
popular route in for the ‘illegals.’ Washington has placed guards,
fences, cameras and sensors in the desert along the border.
Nonetheless, thousands of illegals from neighboring Mexico, further
south in the Americas and even as far away as China, keep finding a way
in.

“They’re doing anything and everything they can to come across,” said Thomas Rudd of the U.S. Border Patrol.

Arizona says Washington just isn’t trying hard enough to stop them.

In frustration, it
adopted a law directing its state and local police to question people
about their immigration status during any routine interaction, if there
is reason to be suspicious. Immigrants would be required to carry their
papers at all times.

President Barack
Obama called the law a ‘misguided’ effort that will target minorities
for police attention and infringe on the national government’s
constitutional authority over immigration.

The judge agreed to some extent and overturned several key provisions. But politically, the president has reason for concern.

Arizona’s law in more popular nationwide than he is.

Our CNN/Opinion
Research Corporation pollsters found that 47 percent of the public
approves of the job he’s doing overall, but fully 55 percent support
the law he is fighting.

Obama could have let Arizona have its way; no one expects the president to approve of every measure adopted in every U.S. state.

Instead he chose to challenge the law and has won. But there will be
appeals. The court case is hardly over and the political battle has
barely begun.

Africa is perhaps
the world’s most unfortunate continent because its leadership cadre is
populated by rapacious and wicked set of people who prefer to steal
their countries blind and hide the fortunes in remote banking halls of
the world. In these banks the money does not become useful to them nor
to their countries because when they die their countries go through
lots of pain and fail to get back the stolen funds with which they have
enriched the economy of the West.

Remember Mobutu
Sese Seko and back home in Nigeria Sani Abacha. The two surely are not
on the Foreign Policy magazine because they are since dead.

Hosni Mubarak who
has held Egypt under his strong thumb since he succeeded the late Anwar
Sadat has after 29 years entered his name in the hall of infamy and a
sit tight leader even in the Arab world where holding of elections may
not be a strong point. The editors of Foreign Policy describe him as “A
senile and paranoid autocrat whose sole preoccupation is
self-perpetuation in office.” He has made Egypt to become a country
where citizens have increasingly become disillusioned and fed up with
going to the polls when they know their thumbprints count for nothing.
He is openly working to turn the country into a dynasty by having his
son succeed him.

After three decades
of holding forte in Equatorial Guinea, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo
(what a mouthful of names) has become the state. There is actually no
visible line that separates the Mbasogo family from the state. Although
the country’s oil wealth is huge enough to make it stand shoulder to
shoulder with many countries in Europe, Mbasogo’s iron rule has ensured
that this does not happen.

Chad, this
eternally poor and impoverished country has been so unlucky that it
goes from one crisis to another. Idriss Deby its leader who was himself
once a rebel leader has turned into a full blown dictator whose words,
right or wrong, is law. He has cowed all his opponents so much that
those who cannot work for him have left the poor country and its
purblind leader. Deby after two decades in power,has become so afraid
of everything around him that he is said to be building a moat round
the capital. To protect himself from the people he is ruling?

“An eccentric
egoist infamous for his indecipherably flamboyant speeches and equally
erratic politics,” that is how the editors describe Muammar Al-Quaddafi
the Libyan leader. The Libyan leader who has held power for forty one
years has of recent mellowed down perhaps because of old age, but his
hold on power in his country has not been relaxed. Although a few who
are his admirers hold the view that he has at least done a few positive
things for his country. For instance, no one has ever accused him of
storing fabulous wealth in any of the banks of the West. He has at
least shown some level of sense of decency in this area where most of
his colleagues have failed woefully.

Melezi Zenawi of
Ethiopia has shown that he could be as barbarous and rough as Mengistu
Haille Mariam whom he fought valiantly to overthrow some twenty years
ago. Perhaps today most Ethiopians would have been wondering why they
hated Mengistu so much when Zenawi has turned out to be the same or
even worse after nineteen years in the saddle. His neighbour Isaias
Afwerki is no better.

Described as a
“crocodile liberator” by the editors he has turned his country into a
huge camp where media are in total shackles and citizens are subjected
to long military service to continue to fight for his sustenance in
power! Of course the one that can’t escape the list is Omar Hassan
al-Bashir of Sudan who is surely going to get his own ‘Charles Taylor’
treatment no matter how long it takes the world to get him. He has
continued to travel in countries that are friendly to him and he is
perhaps sure will not hand him over to the International Criminal Court
which has charged him for genocide and war crimes.

As of the time of
writing this piece he is on a visit to his soul mate Deby in Chad. He
is spending his twenty first year in power.

Finally, there is the emperor of Zimbabwe and the grand liberator,
Robert Mugabe. A man who, perhaps, would have today stood second in
world fame only to Nelson Mandela if he had chosen the path of honour,
has stashed the country’s fortunes abroad and sent his children to Asia
to live like lords in the universities there. After leading the country
to independence thirty years ago he has dragged it from its Olympian
heights to the lowest depth a country can sink to. Inflation now run at
an unprecedented billion percent! These men and those from last week’s
list are the ‘final men’ because they have come to regard themselves as
the state. Without them the state cannot survive. This has come to pass
in a country like Somalia where it has gone to the dogs since the death
of Siad Barre. Are these men not responsible for their countries woes?

Unless the Edo State government makes good its pledge to
finally halt the incessant encroachments on the Benin/Ogba Zoo and Nature Park
(BENZOPA), the priceless centre could descend into oblivion, like a great deal
of the once pristine forest estate of the state as a result of excessive human
abuse.

BENZOPA, although lucky to retain part of its naturalness, is
treasured as the last vestige of the Guinea lowland rainforest habitat found in
the Nigerian urban setting (if not West Africa). Herein exists diverse plant
and fauna, some of which are endangered or going extinct.

Situated at about 7km distance of the Benin City suburb of
Ogba, with about 27 hectares land area that is divided into the Wilderness and
Zoo sections, BENZOPA has assorted natural and artificial trees, animals and
birds in its free wild and semi-free-range enclosures. It serves as
environmental education and a recreational centre, where many visitors throng
to, all year round.

In a last ditch effort to wrestle the park’s land at all cost,
land scrambling overlords in the state, after sustained futile efforts, have
been promoting a campaign to discredit the park as a project that has failed to
meet the need for which it was established. They probably have sensed the moves
by state governor, Adams Oshiomhole, to restore the original master plan of the
park and chase out all illegal land acquirers in the former Ogba Forest
Reserve.

Incidentally, work on the rescue of BENZOPA, led by Andy
Ehanire and his Evernal Services Company, has been successful so far. Mr.
Ehanire, a keen environmentalist and national vice president of the Federation
of Tourism Associations of Nigeria (FTAN), has demonstrated a respectable
proclivity for conservation.

To effectively manage BENZOPA requires a lot of courage.
Firstly, it meant calling the bluff or stepping on the toes of the same
powerful land speculators that had unduly acquired and converted part of the
park’s land area, with the once rustic neighbourhood or its green zone fast
giving way to structures like the Ogba Housing Estate, located directly
opposite it.

Obviously, providing additional features to the centre has been
a capital intensive venture which the management consultants have had to meet.
Among the park’s major visitors are school-age children, who frequent the park
for environmental education and recreational purposes.

Before its takeover, the centre was a heartbreaking wreck –
beset with illegal logging of its old growth trees and poaching of its animals,
sometimes with the connivance of forestry officers.

Moved by the urgent need to bring back the park, BENZOPA has
been supported by the zeal of volunteer assistants, which include this writer,
Tony Oregbeme, and the late Samuel Shokpekhai. The last two are forestry and
wildlife experts of the state’s Forestry Department, who pioneered the
establishment of the centre. Mr. Shokpekhai, a naturalist and snake nurturer,
passed on recently.

Special status

Since it was taken over about a decade ago, the zoo section of
the park has been painstainkingly cleaned up, with the enclosures more reinforced.
The wild life part has also been partly provided with manicure ‘nature trails,
as most of its enclosures are restocked with appreciable presence of the cats,
primates, birds, reptiles etc.

Although the practice of ‘fauna species in the enclosures’ has
often been condemned by animal rights activists worldwide, as they would prefer
‘animals and birds in a free range system’, the zoo practice is still
relatively popular. With fauna in the enclosures, sight viewers, particularly
the younger ones, easily have a first contact with the species, rather than in
dicey protected areas or in pictures.

Besides, the ‘enclosure system’ or ‘captivity’ offers the ideal
opportunity for animal/bird breeding, especially to guarantee the continuous
survival of those species that are endangered or going extinct, which could be
bred and re-injected into the free wild.

By the way, BENZOPA is warming up to start a special breeding
programme, although the existing enclosures encourage breeding. Its playground
is constantly landscaped, re-grassed, and provided with some facilities.

Although the Edo State government has often showed its
readiness to address the problem of the conservation enclave, especially with
the recent fence-mending official visits to the protected site by the
environment commissioner, Clem Agba, the state has to redouble its effort to
give BENZOPA the desired respite by finally wading off its violators.

Being the first urban zoo and park to be given statutory
recognition in the country, Edo residents and mankind cannot afford to lose
this nature’s masterpiece to those insistent violators.

Senior federal workers in Abuja are screaming and kicking against a planned competence test, which they say is a ploy to sack staff before paying the new salary to civil servants.

After a meeting, last Thursday, at the auditorium of the federal ministry of justice, the civil servants, most of whom are on upper grade level 14 to 16, resolved to ignore any further test and also challenge in court the demand by the office of the Head of Service (HOS) of the federation to conduct examinations for them.

The civil servants accused Stephen Orosanye, the head of service, of insincerity, adding that Mr Oronsaye is orchestrating the idea of a test as a ploy to sack workers.

“The federal government does not want to pay the new salary to all civil servants. They are now looking for a way to lay off workers, hiding under the guise of examination or tests,” said an assistant director in the federal ministry of education who, for fear of victimization, prefers to be anonymous.

Competency Assessment Test

In a public statement titled ‘Notice of re-sit of the post training competency assessment test for federal civil servants on GL 14 – 16,’ Mr. Orosanye stated that senior civil servants who “did not make the 40% cut-off mark” for an earlier test held in May should come for a re-sit examination on August 9.

But the civil servants said they will not only disregard the directive, they would also go to court to challenge it. They claim that Mr. Orosanye has a hidden agenda in insisting on them writing the examination.

“If that exam should hold on the 9th, the desired result will still not be gotten because the structures are rotten,” said Olaitan, the president of the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSON), at the meeting.

Several civil servants who spoke at the meeting also agreed that the workers should not go for the examination.

“The tests should not hold at all. It is the responsibility of the Federal Civil Service Commission to conduct tests, not that of the head of service,” said a senior official of the ministry of transport.

Tope Ajakaiye, a deputy director and head of press and public relations unit at the office of the HOS, however, insists that the HOS has no hidden agenda for conducting the tests.

“The civil service has degenerated for a very long time. One of the ways to correct it is training. The name of the examination is post-training competence test. He (Mr. Orosanye) wants to know his competent officers,” Mr. Ajakaiye explained.

Though he declined to confirm if the results of the test would be a basis for promotion of the workers, the deputy director said the head of service was determined to conduct a re-sit examination because of the “complaints he received” over the conduct of the previous test.

Other reasons for rejecting test

It was learnt that apart from lack of clarity on the purpose of the test, one other reason the workers are rejecting the scheduled test is the shabby way the workers were treated during the last training exercise and tests held in Abuja from May 4-15.

“We all came to Abuja from our different postings. Nothing was provided for us, no transportation, no accommodation, nothing. Some of us even had to sleep at the venue of training. Up till now, even the local transport allowance that the head of service promised will be paid has not been paid,” said Mr. Adeyemo.

Mr. Ajakaiye, however, absolves Mr. Orosanye of any blame.

“Every ministry has travelling vote, so they are supposed to take care of that (the workers travel and accommodation) from their traveling vote. No ministry has informed the head of service that it will not pay,” Mr. Ajakaiye said.

He further explained that the HOS, in a letter to the various ministries, made it clear that it would only take care of local transport allowance for the workers.

However, the workers dispute this. “Our ministries say they have no directive to make such payment. Why should we believe the Head of Service when even the local tour allowance they claim they will pay, they have not paid. Do they think we have any stolen money like politicians to use for these journeys?” queried Mr. Adeyemo.

Unproven death

Several civil servants who spoke on anonymity claimed that some of their colleagues lost their lives while going to or returning from the test venue.

“Some of our colleagues died. The vice principal of the Federal Government College, Okigwe, died in an accident on her return journey from the training and test venue. Yet they want us to continue to travel, even when the test is illegal.”

Mr. Ajakaiye, however, denied knowledge of the death of any worker saying “when a civil servant dies, there is a process to be followed. From that period, we did not receive any information to that effect.”

Legality of such Test

The workers insist that by the civil service rules, only the federal civil service commission is permitted to conduct promotion examinations for senior civil servants. The commission was supposed to organise promotion exams for the staff on the 26th, 27th and 28th of July, but postponed it indefinitely.

The workers believe the postponement was engineered by the activities of Mr. Oronsanye, a claim the latter denies.

Though Mr. Ajakaiye denies that the test will be used as a basis for promotion, an undated and unsigned directive to all MDAs from the office of the HOS states otherwise.

“Officers should also note that a pass in the post-training test constitutes one of the necessary requirements for eligibility to be presented for the promotion exam when due,” the directive stated.

Presidency Intervenes

Mr. Olaitan, the workers union boss, told his members that President Goodluck Jonathan set up a committee to review the problems in the civil service and that the “committee advised the president to suspend the promotion exercise by the head of service.”

The workers, wearing angry looks on their faces during their meeting, set up a seven-man committee to work with its union executives to communicate their demand to the head of service.

These demands, which include cancellation of all examinations or test by the HOS, and proper reform of the promotion structure within the civil service, are to be submitted to the HOS tomorrow Monday.

However, Mr. Orosanye, through his spokesman, insists that the post-training competence test is just part of the reform in the civil service.

“If we want power, the civil service must be reformed because that is where the policies are formulated and implemented.”

Calabar, capital of Cross River State, stands on the ethnic
tripod of the Efik, Qua, and Efut. Each has its own language, but owing to the
influence of western civilization, Efik is today the lingua franca of the city.
Efik traces its origin to Urruan in Akwa Ibom State, while Qua and Efut
migrated from Central Africa and Cameroon respectively.

The three groups are spread across six of the seven local
government areas of Cross River south senatorial district. These include
Bakassi, Akpabuyo, Calabar South, Calabar Municipal Council, Odukpani, and
Akamkpa. This mixture does not make for a dominant ethnic group in any of these
councils and entire Cross River south senatorial district.

Each of these groups has its own traditional government, headed
by a paramount chief. The Efiks have the Obong of Calabar, the Quas have the
Ndidem, and the Efut, Muri Munene. Before 1973, the Obong of Calabar was the
supreme traditional ruler of the city. Even now, the emergence of other
paramount rulers has not obliterated the influence and national acclaim of the
Treaty King and Grand Patriarch of the Efiks.

Characteristically, each ethnic group is troubled by occasional
succession crisis to its throne. Each time any of the three overall monarchs
joined his ancestors, the vacuum created becomes a recipe for crisis. Although
the Quas have had less trouble in producing a new Ndidem, the Efik and the Efut
have struggled to ensure smooth succession.

Right now, Cross River is gripped by such a crisis among the
Efut. Since the paramount ruler of Calabar south local government area and Muri
Munene of Efut, Ita Okokon Asikpo Ebuka-Ebuka 1V, passed away last September,
it has been impossible for the Efuts to have a substantive Muri Munene [supreme
ruler].

Two clan heads, Muri Ita Okokon Mesembe X1 [Efut Ibonda] and
Muri Effiong Okokon Mbukpa Ita Odionka Ebuka V11 [Efut Abua East] are laying
claims to the throne. Each is claiming to have been screened and installed by
the king makers as the new Muri Munene. Accordingly, two groups of kingmakers
have emerged in the kingdom.

While the Mesembe camp said only the six original clans founded
by the six sons of Efut progenitor are qualified to vie for the coveted crown,
that of Mbukpa has put a lie to it, claiming that by virtue of the Inoyo
Commission of the late 1970s, eight clans now hold sway in Efut land and are
each heir apparent.

That commission also recommended the rotation of the stool
among the eight clans. Both camps have submitted their nominees to the Cross
River State government for recognition, inauguration, and presentation of staff
of office as Muri Munene.

The irreconciliable differences between the two camps have
entrapped state governor, Liyel Imoke, who has found it difficult to decide on
who to endorse. The state government wants the factions to resolve it
traditionally.

But one of the groups is calling for a commission of enquiry
into the crisis, while the other said such an inquest is not necessary as a
monarch has already emerged.

It is believed that it was the turn of Efut Ukem, in Odukpani,
to produce a successor to Ebuka-Ebuka. But the candidate, Itam Hogan, a
professor of medicine, declined and nominated Mr. Mesembe from Efut Ibonda.
Then Mr. Mbukpa from Efut Abua, which produced the last monarch, announced his
interest. He said he took the crown because he was the only bold candidate to
perform the traditional burial rites of his predecessor, as required by the
custom of Efut.

Muri Mesembe has called on the state government to set up a
panel to investigate whether himself or his rival, Muri Mbukpa, is the
authentic successor to the throne of their forebears.

“The suggested investigative panel has become long overdue, as
it was the only way to dig to the root of the crisis and thus save Efut kingdom
from further embarrassment arising from these conflicting claims,” Mesembe said
in an interview in Calabar.

He advised the state government to raise the panel as a way to
rest the controversy, calm frayed nerves, and stave off any violent clash. “The
current struggle is between impostors and the true descendants of the six
original ancestors who founded Efut nation,” he said. “Anybody parading himself
today as leader of Efut nation is an impostor. We have never had such a
nomenclature in our traditional governance at its apex level. Some persons
somewhere are misleading members of the public, including the state
government.”

Unworried Efut chiefs

But reacting to the call for a panel of enquiry, the Efut
Combined Assembly (ECA), the highest traditional governing body in Efut
kingdom, refuted the allegations that the Efut was embroiled in succession
crisis and its secretariat factionalised.

Chairman of the assembly, Ndabo Obo E.E. Obo, made the refutal
at a meeting of the assembly held at the palace of the paramount ruler of
Calabar-South at Anantigha, Calabar, noting however, that the seeming crisis
was as a result of the passing away of the former Muri Munene.

Ndabo Obos said subject to the tradition and customs of the
people and after the obsequies of the deceased Muri Munene, a period was given
for the selection of a successor to the throne based on four criteria.

The criteria, he said, are that such candidates must be
initiates and title holders of Ekpe society; must have been a Muri (a certified
clan head) and officially presented to the ECA for recognition and royal
blessings by the Munene in Council; must have been a regular attendant at
meetings at ECA palace; and must be able to trace his ancestary to any of the
royal houses in Efut.

Based on these criteria, he said, Muri Effiong Mbukpa was
unanimously selected and enthroned as the paramount ruler of Calabar-South and
Muri Munene-elect, a position which had since last year been communicated to
the Cross River State government through the special assistant to the governor
on chieftaincy affairs, Emmanuel Arop.

He said the Muri Munene-elect has since ascended the throne of
his ancestors and had been peacefully coordinating the affairs of the people of
Efut and as such, there was nothing anybody could do to alter the wish of the
people.

“None of those rebels fulfilled the conditions as mentioned,”
he said. “One of them was stripped of his Ekpe title many years ago and he did
nothing to restore his title and could, therefore, not say that he is qualified
to ascend the throne of our fore-fathers.

“And all the four of them had withdrawn themselves from the
traditional matters of Efut over ten years ago on the ground that the former
Muri Munene was not literate and should not lord over them. Thus, they were not
qualified in meeting attendance.

“In effect, we have only one Munene on the throne and anybody
doing something else, is on his own,” he said.

In 2008, the Efik kingdom literally went up in flames following
the demise of the Obong of Calabar, Edidem Nta Elijah Henshaw, occasioned by
the politics over his successor. Residents of Calabar are wondering if the Efut
would manage their own better.

Dikko Nwachukwu, an entrepreneur with a rich heritage, is running
for the only senate seat for FCT. He explains how he intends to achieve his
goals to NEXT’s Emmanuel Ogala. Excerpts:

His inspiration to run
for senate

I have been very passionate about Nigeria, about making things
work, because when you go around the world and you meet friends from other
countries, especially friends from Ghana, they talk with such passion and pride
about their country.

If someone who has all the connections in the world, both locally
and internationally, cannot get a business up and running in Nigeria, then what
becomes of the average guy who has nothing? My passion is just to make this
country a better place really.

His special interest in
education

We need people who can hold elected officers accountable and
dissect the information that is coming out. I think for a long time we’ve been
looking at the wrong side of the solution. We’ve been looking at building more
schools, but that is not the answer. I think we need to look at a very
different set of approach, which is training of teachers.

I am aware we need more schools in FCT, especially primary and
secondary schools, but even if you build more schools and people teaching in
those schools don’t have the necessary skills, it is a waste of everyone’s
time.

My approach is one where we need to find money to train teachers
in the FCT so that they don’t run away to private schools with our
scholarships. Teachers need to be paid salaries on par with maybe managers, but
depending on the skills they have and the impact that they have on the
children.

His other plan for the
FCT

I think the FCT needs to find a way to reduce the cost of house
rent. Government needs to start encouraging and giving incentives to developers
who would focus on building low cost housing with cheap, but good quality
materials.

The process is actually tedious right now. We need to find a way
to make life more affordable in the FCT, and we have to figures a way to do
that because I am not sure legislation alone would force landlords to reduce
rent. We cannot tell somebody who probably borrowed money to build not to
charge so much.

Possibility of achieving
this through the senate

Abuja has a minister, which is the chief executive of the FCT.
Because Abuja has one senator, if that senator and the minister could work as a
team, the things that will happen in the FCT will be quite amazing. These
programmes I am talking about means getting more allocations from the federal
budget for the FCT, and we can work hand-in-hand to get the monies that we
need. I represent the people, he is appointed by the president. Therefore, the
minister needs me as a senator to get the monies he needs to execute projects.

Which platform will you
run on?

Peoples’ Democratic Party.

The PDP agreement that
only Gwari can represent Abuja in the senate

That’s an interesting one. Abuja was created to be ethnically
neutral area in the middle of the country; to be accessible to every Nigerian.
Abuja was created to be one place where every citizen in Nigeria can say: “I
have a home,” not just your state of origin. I have been here since 1991. I am
pretty much a native of Abuja.

Yes, I am not Gwari, or other indigenous tribe, but that was not
why Abuja was created. My heritage is one-quarter Igbo from Abia State (my
Dad); one-quarter Yoruba from Ogun State (my Mom); one-quarter Hausa from
Katsina (My father’s mother), and one-quarter Kalabari from Rivers (my mother’s
father).

So, I understand enough the issues facing a lot of people from my
interactions with my family.

No allowances as senator

I have been privileged in my life. I don’t need the money from
the senate to survive. I already own a house here in the FCT, my family is ok,
and we are doing fine.

I am also from a family that has a very humble lifestyle. We are
not ostentatious. The name that I carry is a very strong name, with a tradition
of doing the right thing and making people’s lives better.

I took a tour of the FCT and in my tour, I saw a level of poverty
that is very astonishing. There is no way I can see that and continue to take
millions of naira to stuff my pocket. Do I want to oppress more people or what?
For me, it is about service.

I am very cognisant of the fact that I want to affect people’s
lives and one thing I know I can do independently is control my allowances. So,
I have decided to take all my allowances and put them into a fund that will be
transparent, so that people will not say I am doing some gimmick or publicity
stunt.

It is something that is very personal to me. I am not criticising anybody
else for not doing it. I want to do that because of the woman who walks 20 km
to get water. If I can reduce that to 5km, then I have done something to
improve her life.

The decision of the national caucus of the All Nigeria Peoples
Party (ANPP) to shift the party’s national convention has worsen the crisis in
the party. Members who arrived Abuja for the two day event only to find that a
new date has been slated for the event, were bitter about the shift. The
convention was earlier scheduled to hold today and tomorrow.

However, the caucus, at its meeting in Asokoro, Abuja, home of
the party’s national chairman, Edwin Ume-Ezeoke, on Wednesday shifted the
convention to late August. It was the third time the party would postpone the
event in the last two months.

The postponement was at the instance of the Independent National
Electoral Commission (INEC), which reportedly said the convention did not meet
the provisions of the 2006 Electoral Act, which mandated every party organising
its convention to give the commission 21 days notice. Yet that explanation had
not doused the anger and protests of members over the postponement.

The National Director of Publicity, Sabo Muhammad confirmed the
postponement but did not give further details. He merely said that the
convention committee was going to meet again to pick another date in line with
INEC’s demand.

One of the chairmanship aspirants, John Odigie-Oyegun also
confirmed the postponement and attributed the development to the insistence of
the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) that it be given adequate
notice.

Some members of the party however claimed that apart from the
commission’s request, the clash of interests among the party stalwarts was
responsible for the shift in date.

At the ANPP national secretariat located in the Central Business
District of the federal capital, some officials, including the 36 state
chairmen of the party, were heard complaining bitterly about the fresh
postponement and the zoning formula agreed upon two nights ago.

Working at cross purposes

Some of them, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said they
were fed up with the frequent postponements of the convention to elect new
national officers. “We’re tired of this postponement and we are also saying
this zoning formula cannot work,” chairman of the party in one of the
south-south states said.

“The shift in the date of the convention has yet revealed our
unpreparedness to wrest power from the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP),”
another said.

The caucus had agreed to retain the zoning of the chairmanship of
the party to the south east geo-political zone while the secretary to the north
east geo-political zone and presidential candidate in the 2011 elections would
come from the northern part of the country.

It was learnt that the event was shifted following the power play
involving two of the party’s three state governors as well as a senator, Ahmad
Sani over who should succeed Mr Ume-Ezeoke whose tenure expires next month.

According to our source, the Borno State governor, Ali Modu Sherriff
and Mr Sani are up in arm against the Kano State Governor, Ibrahim Shekarau,
who they alleged is plotting to take over the party’s structure at the national
level.

Messrs Sheriff and Sani are said to be opposed to the candidacy
of Harry Akande, who is reportedly favoured by Mr Shekarau to assume the
chairmanship position.

Mr Akande is contesting against three other southerners, namely
Odigie-Oyegun, Emmanuel Eneukwu and George Moghalu.

A source said the Borno chief executive and the senator, said to be
backing Mr Odigie-Oyegun and Moghalu respectively, are worried that the success
of Mr Akande at the convention would amount to the Kano State governor
hijacking the party from them.

Mr Shekarau has already indicated his interest to run for the
presidency. Mr Ume-Ezeoke, whose emergence as chairman was made possible by Mr
Sani and the former Governor of Kebbi State, Adamu Aliero in 2006, is backing
Mr Eneukwu for the chairmanship seat against the choice of the Borno State
governor and the senator.

Thursday, July 29, was particularly hectic for media
correspondents in Ibadan. They were faced with two important national
assignments whose schedule were not quite definite.

Members of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) were in Ibadan for
the better part of last week for their first ever delegates congress, the
climax of the congress was Thursday when an election to produce a new set of
national officers was scheduled.

Also, former military president, Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida, was
billed to visit the town to launch his presidential campaign in the
Southwestern zone of the country.

After waiting for the self-styled evil genius for several hours,
only the former governor of Niger State, Abdukadri Kure, showed up to represent
him. And as if that was not enough disappointment, the NBA’s election scheduled
to have been concluded by 2.30 pm dragged till around 10.30 pm.

The extension was understandable, though. Long before the
elections were held, there had been palpable tension within the ranks of the
Bar over who succeeds Oluwarotimi Akeredolu (SAN) as the NBA president. Mr.
Akeredolu was believed to have raised the Bar in the lawyers’ association
presidency with his brilliant and thought provoking contributions to national
issues during his two-year term.

He was not only loud in his comments on issues of national
importance, but on many occasions spoke against any government policies and
actions perceived to have contravened the provisions of the Nigerian
constitution. With this, the Bar was aware that whoever wanted to succeed him
must be ready and well equipped to keep the fire burning.

On the contest for the NBA presidency were Joseph Bodunrin Daudu
and Joe-Kyari Gadzama, both senior advocates and highly successful legal
practitioners.

They both paraded intimidating resumes that clearly made them
eminently qualified for the job.

But good quality is one thing, politics is another. To be
counted worthy, the two candidates did not only crisscrossed the length and
breadth of the country to solicit support and vote, they also employed the
services of foot-soldiers for further effect.

But after all the campaign and political maneuvering, the
Nigerian Bar entrusted the direction of its affairs in the next two years in
the hands of Daudu, late last Thursday, by giving him 781 votes, against 487
given to Gadzama.

However, long before the election, indications were rife that
the new president was the anointed candidate of the outgoing president.
Akeredolu himself confirmed his support for the new president, shortly after
the election. He told journalists that he had propelled Mr. Daudu, who was a
former chairman of the Kaduna branch of NBA, for the job owing to his sterling
qualities. According to him, though he has nothing against the other
contestant, he expressed high joy that his candidate won.

In the southwest where Akeredolu practices, lawyers within the
zone, under the aegis of Egbe Amofin, had risen from a general meeting to
pledge their total support for the candidate.

Also declared along Daudu are Blessing Emonena Ukiri, who won
the the 1st vice presidency with 483; Osas Justy Erhabor, the 2nd vice president,
winning with 447 votes; for the 3rd vice president, Ogugua Ikpeze won with 691
votes. Others are Oluwafunmilayo Oluyede, the new treasurer with 769 votes;
Olumuyiwa Akinboro, general secretary with 699 votes; Adekunle Ajasa as
financial secretary, with 679 votes; Sule Usman as welfare secretary, with 507
votes; Emeka Obegolu as publicity secretary, with 872 votes; Victor Chima
Nwaugo as legal adviser, with 709 votes; Stephen Terseer Abar, as 1st assistant
secretary with 617 votes; Paul Odah Ebiaia as 2nd assistant secretary, with 646
votes; and Augustine Obi Afam, who was returned unopposed as the 3rd candidate.

Hard battle

In his acceptance speech, Daudu described the election as a
“hard fought battle”, saying the process produced “no victor and no vanquished”.

Just before the result of the elections were formally declared,
members of the electoral committee, led by Obi Okusogwu (SAN), had a huge task
controlling the supporters of the new president, who already suspected that
their candidate was clearly leading.

The committee was forced to announce soon after the counting was
concluded, causing wild jubilation within the premises of Jogor Centre, where
the elections were held, and outside.

In consonance with the new system occasioned by the review of
the NBA constitution last year, the new national officers will be sworn-in at
the annual general meeting of the association, holding in August.

Protem national
chairman of Social Democratic Mega Party (SDMP), Pat Utomi says the
party will provide platform for women, youth and Nigerians in Diaspora
to contest for elective positions in the 2011 elections.

Mr. Utomi, who
stated this during a meeting with some women advocates, also said the
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has formally
recognised the party to participate in the elections.

The women group,
supported by a joint basket of international agencies and donors such
as UNIFEM and USAID, visited Mr. Utomi to canvass more positions for
women in the party ahead of the polls.

Olubori Obafemi, a
media officer of the party on Wednesday, quoted Mr. Utomi as saying
that the group’s aspiration is in tandem with the manifesto of the
SDMP, which is a fusion of about 25 political parties and over 150
political leaders across the country.

“It is our informed
desire to give more spaces to women, people in Diaspora and the youth
in the mega party also referred to as the new Social Democratic Party,”
Mr. Utomi said. “This aspiration is in tandem with the provisions of
our manifesto to show others how to run a real political party, where
inclusion and participation are the key to party building.”

The protem chairman
said the party’s manifesto produced by a technical committee led by a
former governor of Lagos State, Lateef Jakande has already settled the
fact that women and other vulnerable sections in the society should be
given more leverage in party.

“I therefore
recommend this great party, initiated by a great patriot and living
legend of our time, Anthony Enahoro to every Nigerian woman as a party,
the deprived can own and use for their total emancipation,” he said.

Change the polity

Leader of the
delegation, Kesiah Awosika, ensured that the group would encourage more
female professionals to join forces with credible politicians to change
the face of the polity.

“We appreciate your
progressive gesture towards Nigerian women and we shall encourage our
associates who are interested in politics to further consult you in
building synergy for a new Nigeria,” she said.